"It's Just Gonna Be Insanity"

Tears, anger and remorse at the trial of John Hinckley

Through the first two weeks of his trial for the shooting of President Ronald Reagan on March 30, 1981, John Hinckley Jr., 26, was a model of calm, impassive silence. That self-control was shattered last week when the jury was shown the videotaped testimony of Jodie Foster, 19, the actress turned college student whose 1976 film Taxi Driver sparked Hinckley's obsession with her and, according to his lawyers, drove him to shoot the President.* Hinckley, who has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, fidgeted throughout her testimony until Foster was asked, "How would you describe your relationship with John Hinckley?" With that, Hinckley abruptly stood up and headed out of the Washington courtroom, a trio of deputy marshals on his heels. Foster's reply: "I don't have any relationship with John Hinckley."

Hinckley's agitation was in especially sharp contrast to his icy calm only hours earlier when his father, John Hinckley Sr., who founded a Denver-based oil and gas exploration firm, broke down on the witness stand. The elder Hinckley described an agonizing meeting with his "wiped out" prodigal son at the Denver airport just three weeks before the shooting. John Sr. said that on advice from the family psychiatrist he refused to let his son come home and suggested he stay at the Y.M.C.A. When John said he did not want to do that, his father told him, "O.K., you're on your own. Do whatever you want to do." Said the elder Hinckley: "In looking back on that, I'm sure that was the greatest mistake of my life. I am the cause of John's tragedy. We forced him out at a time when he just couldn't cope. I wish to God that I could trade places with him right now." Then he buried his eyes in a handkerchief and sobbed.

Earlier in the week Hinckley's brother Scott, 31, and sister Diane, 29, testified that they had urged their father to have John institutionalized but that he had refused, concerned that it would do more harm than good. Scott, who works with his father, described his brother as a loner and noted that "John was a very emotionless person."

Hinckley did, however, exhibit considerable emotion on a tape, released as evidence last week, that he made at his parents' home in Evergreen, Colo., on New Year's Eve 1980. By then he had become infatuated with Foster after seeing Taxi Driver as many as 15 times. In the movie, a crazed cabbie, played by Robert De Niro, sets out to assassinate a presidential candidate in an attempt to impress a child prostitute, played by Foster. Hinckley so identified with the film's anti-hero that he bought an Army fatigue jacket and took to drinking peach brandy, as did De Niro's character. "I don't know what's gonna happen this year," Hinckley said on the tape. "It's just gonna be insanity if I even make it through the first few days." After lamenting the murder of Beatle John Lennon earlier that December, Hinckley continued: "Jodie is the only thing that matters now. Anything that I might do in 1981 would be solely for Jodie Foster's sake, and I mean that sincerely. I want to make some kind of statement or something on her behalf. Just tell the world in some way that I worship and idolize her."

Hinckley followed Foster to Yale University, where she was a freshman last year, and badgered her with letters and phone calls. Introduced into evidence were several notes he sent her, including a card reading: "Jodie Foster love. Just wait. I'll rescue you very soon. Please cooperate. J.W.H." The taxi driver had sent a similar message to the child prostitute. Tapes of telephone calls recorded by Hinckley and found in his Washington hotel room after the shooting were also played. In one, an exasperated Foster told him: "You understand why I can't carry on these conversations with people I don't know. You undertand that it is dangerous and it's just not done and it's not fair and it's rude." Replied Hinckley: "Well, I'm not dangerous. I promise you that."

*Foster was allowed to tape her testimony because she expected to be in Europe during the trial. She was however in New York last week.

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